The map on the map page shows the locations of the 16 teams that have qualified for the 2012 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament. Accompanying each team’s dot on the map is either their primary logo or their script logo from one of their current sweaters. At the upper left-hand corner of the map page is a brief description of the selection process, with the four #1 seeded teams listed.

To the right of that, at the top-center of the map page, are the 16 teams in the tournament, listed by 2011-12 average home attendance.
Here is where I got the attendance data from: ‘Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2011-2012‘ (USCHO.com).
Accompanying columns list the following – the schools’ locations, and the teams’ conferences; plus 4 aspects of each team’s attendance data… 2011-12 average attendance and rank (from home, regular season games), percentage-change from 2010-11, stadium capacity, and 2011-12 percent-capacity [Percent-capacity equals average attendance divided by stadium capacity].

Finally, at the far right-hand side of the map page are 2 lists. The top list shows NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament titles (with the year of last title). The list below that shows All-time NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament Frozen Four appearances (with the year of their last Frozen Four appearance).

One thing you should be aware of is that, as opposed to the logos on the map itself, for the 3 charts I used different logos (tiny icon-sized logos) for some of the teams. I did did because of easier visibility (when the logos are shrunk so much) – not very consistent of me, I know, but I figured it wouldn’t cause confusion on a map that features only 16 teams.

One note…both these lists on the far right-hand side of the map page are for ALL teams in the 58-team Division I men’s Ice Hockey set-up, not just the 16 teams who have qualified for the tournament this season. I make this note because on some of my NCAA Basketball Tournament maps, I have listed only the participating teams’ all-time tournament appearances and touirnament titles, but here, with the ice hockey tournament, I am listing NCAA Division I Titles and Frozen Four appearances of all the teams in Division I. I did it this way for two reasons. The far smaller size of Division I men’s ice hockey made it both feasible to include a comprehensive list – there are 58 teams in NCAA Division I men’s hockey, versus 345 teams in NCAA Division I men’s basketball – and sort of pointless to list the more run-of-the-mill accomplishment of simply qualifying. 68 divided by 345 equals 19.7 %, which means that 19.7% of Division I men’s basketball teams make March Madness each year / while 16 divided by 58 equals 27.5%, which means that 27.5% of Division I men’s ice hockey teams make the NCAA Tournament each year.

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The Hobey Baker Award is given each season to the top NCAA college hockey player [ Hobey Baker was a military veteran and Princeton graduate who played varsity hockey. Baker died in 1918 in France during World War I as a test pilot. ] The first Hobey Baker Award was given in 1981, and was won by Minnesota-born Minnesota Golden Gophers and 1980 US Olympic hockey team Gold Medalist Center Neal Broten. Other notable Hobey Baker Award winners are Ducks/Avalanche/Predators/Blues Canadian-born Left Winger Paul Kariya (in 1993, as a player on the Maine Black Bears), and East Lansing, Michigan-born Buffalo Sabres Goaltender Ryan Miller (in 2001, as a player on the Michigan State Spartans). ‘Hobey Baker Award‘ (en.wikipedia.org).

Below: the 8 Points leaders (as measured by Goals + Assists), and the 3 top goaltenders (as measured by Goals Against Average), in the 2011-12 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey season (note: stats include regular season and conference playoffs) -

Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org, for the college hockey teams’ sweater logo illustrations used on the map (at each team’s Wikipedia page, such as UMass-Lowell’s, here).
Thanks to USCHO.com, for stats and coverage.

The 2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is the 74th edition of what has become known as March Madness. The competition began in 1939, with an 8-team field, and was won by the Oregon Ducks, who beat the Ohio State Buckeyes 43-36, at Patten Gynamsium on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. For 2012, the defending champions are the Connecticut Huskies (aka UConn), and the Final Four games including the Final will be played at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. This is the second season that the expanded-by-3-teams 68-team format is being used. Last season, one of the teams that played in the first Play-In round made it all the way to the Final Four – the VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) Rams, of Richmond, VA. So one would have to say that the 68-team format has turned out to be a brilliant innovation, satisfying the clamor for expansion of the tournament, without watering it down and wrecking the perfection that is the 64-team NCAA bracket format. Coach Shaka Smart‘s VCU Rams are back in the tourney this year, but this year they don’t have to get past the Play-In round, and go straight to the Second Round, as a 12th seed. The VCU Rams play the 5th-seeded Wichita State Shockers in Atlanta on Friday night at 7:15 EDT. Before that, the four Play In games will start on Tuesday with 2 games, the next two Play-in games are on Wednesday; and the 64-team Second Round will begin around noon on Thursday, on through to late Friday night.

At the top of this post and below are links for the schedule, as well as results and coverage. One note, you probably will be able to (like the last 2 years) watch all the games from your computer via the second ink (CBS sports).ESPN – College BK/ home.CBSsports.com/College BK.

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Qualifying teams by conference can be seen at this link – ‘2012 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament: qualifying teams/Bids by conference‘. Once again, the Big East has the most teams in the tournament, with 9. Permit me a bit of boasting as I mention that tiny St. Bonaventure University’s Bonnies – my favorite college bk team – have made the tournament for the first time in 12 years, on the strength of Senior 6’9” power forward Andrew Nicholson, who hails from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, and who was voted the 2012 Atlantic-10 Player of the Year. The Bonnies play Florida State on Friday. That makes 4 teams from the Atlantic-10 in this year’s tournament (St. Bonaventure, Saint Louis, Temple, and Xavier) – not too shabby for a mid-major conference.

The state with the most teams in the tournament is North Carolina, with 5 – Davidson, Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and UNC Asheville. Four states have 4 teams in the tournament – California, Kentucky, New York, and Ohio. There are 2 teams that are making their March Madness debuts – the Norfolk State Spartans, of Norfolk, VA; and the South Dakota State Jackrabbits, of Brookings, SD (population 22,000).

The Kansas Jayhawks are the team with the longest current streak of consecutive NCAA tournament appearances – it’s now 23 straight years that the Jayhawks have qualified for the tournament.

Kentucky is the #1 overall seed in the 2012 tournament, and the Kentucky Wildcats are also the team that have been in the tournament the most times (52 times). Here is the list of all-time appearances – ‘NCAA Men’s Division I Tournament bids by school‘.

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Announcement: due to health reasons (pinched nerve in shoulder), I will be cutting back on content output.